Brief of Corporate Law Professors as Amici Curie in Support of Respondents

The Supreme Court has looked to the rights of corporate shareholders in determining the rights of union members and non-members to control political spending, and vice versa. The Court sometimes assumes that if shareholders disapprove of corporate political expression, they can easily sell their shares or exercise control over corporate spending. This assumption is mistaken. Because of how capital is saved and invested, most individual shareholders cannot obtain full information about corporate political activities, even after the fact, nor can they prevent their savings from being used to speak in ways with which they disagree. Individual shareholders have no “opt out” rights or practical ability to avoid subsidizing corporate political expression with which they disagree. Nor do individuals have the practical option to refrain from putting their savings into equity investments, as doing so would impose damaging economic penalties and ignore conventional financial guidance for individual investors

Dynamical origins of heat capacity changes in enzyme-catalysed reactions

Heat capacity changes affect the temperature dependence of enzyme catalysis, with implications for thermoadaptation, however their physical basis is unknown. Here the authors show that heat capacity changes are calculable by simulation, revealing distinct dynamical contributions from regions remote from the active site

Hepatic FoxOs link insulin signaling with plasma lipoprotein metabolism through an apolipoprotein M/sphingosine-1-phosphate pathway

Multiple beneficial cardiovascular effects of HDL depend on sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). S1P associates with HDL by binding to apolipoprotein M (ApoM). Insulin resistance is a major driver of dyslipidemia and cardiovascular risk. However, the mechanisms linking alterations in insulin signaling with plasma lipoprotein metabolism are incompletely understood. The insulin-repressible FoxO transcription factors mediate key effects of hepatic insulin action on glucose and lipoprotein metabolism. This work tested whether hepatic insulin signaling regulates HDL-S1P and aimed to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms. We report that insulin-resistant, nondiabetic individuals had decreased HDL-S1P levels, but no change in total plasma S1P. This also occurred in insulin-resistant db/db mice, which had low ApoM and a specific reduction of S1P in the HDL fraction, with no change in total plasma S1P levels. Using mice lacking hepatic FoxOs (L-FoxO1,3,4), we found that hepatic FoxOs were required for ApoM expression. Total plasma S1P levels were similar to those in controls, but S1P was nearly absent from HDL and was instead increased in the lipoprotein-depleted plasma fraction. This phenotype was restored to normal by rescuing ApoM in L-FoxO1,3,4 mice. Our findings show that insulin resistance in humans and mice is associated with decreased HDL-associated S1P. Our study shows that hepatic FoxO transcription factors are regulators of the ApoM/S1P pathway

Supreme Court Amicus Brief of 19 Corporate Law Professors, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, No. 14-915

The Supreme Court has looked to the rights of corporate shareholders in determining the rights of union members and non-members to control political spending, and vice versa. The Court sometimes assumes that if shareholders disapprove of corporate political expression, they can easily sell their shares or exercise control over corporate spending. This assumption is mistaken. Because of how capital is saved and invested, most individual shareholders cannot obtain full information about corporate political activities, even after the fact, nor can they prevent their savings from being used to speak in ways with which they disagree. Individual shareholders have no “opt out” rights or practical ability to avoid subsidizing corporate political expression with which they disagree. Nor do individuals have the practical option to refrain from putting their savings into equity investments, as doing so would impose damaging economic penalties and ignore conventional financial guidance for individual investors

Tumor Progression Locus 2 (Tpl2) Deficiency Does Not Protect against Obesity-Induced Metabolic Disease

Obesity is associated with a state of chronic low grade inflammation that plays an important role in the development of insulin resistance. Tumor progression locus 2 (Tpl2) is a serine/threonine mitogen activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAP3K) involved in regulating responses to specific inflammatory stimuli. Here we have used mice lacking Tpl2 to examine its role in obesity-associated insulin resistance. Wild type (wt) and tpl2−/− mice accumulated comparable amounts of fat and lean mass when fed either a standard chow diet or two different high fat (HF) diets containing either 42% or 59% of energy content derived from fat. No differences in glucose tolerance were observed between wt and tpl2−/− mice on any of these diets. Insulin tolerance was similar on both standard chow and 42% HF diets, but was slightly impaired in tpl2−/− mice fed the 59% HFD. While gene expression markers of macrophage recruitment and inflammation were increased in the white adipose tissue of HF fed mice compared with standard chow fed mice, no differences were observed between wt and tpl2−/− mice. Finally, a HF diet did not increase Tpl2 expression nor did it activate Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), the MAPK downstream of Tpl2. These findings argue that Tpl2 does not play a non-redundant role in obesity-associated metabolic dysfunction

Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law

Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe

Towards an Economy of Higher Education

This paper draws a distinction between ways thinking and acting, and hence of policy and practice in higher education, in terms of different kinds of economy: economies of exchange and economies of excess. Crucial features of economies of exchange are outlined and their presence in prevailing conceptions of teaching and learning is illustrated. These are contrasted with other possible forms of practice, which in turn bring to light the nature of an economy of excess. In more philosophical terms, and to expand on the picture, economies of excess are elaborated with reference, first, to the understanding of alterity in the work of Emmanuel Levinas and, second, to the idea of Dionysian intensity that is to be found in Nietzsche. In the light of critical comment on some current directions in policy and practice, the implications of these ways of thinking for the administrator, the teacher and the student in higher education are explored